Thursday, 29 September 2016

One of the alien delegates to the planet of Peladon, sent to decide on its admittance to the Galactic Federation. Like Alpha Centauri, this may not be its real name - as it is supposed to represent that solar system, though both responded to the titles as though they were their actual names (a TARDIS translation perhaps).
Arcturus was a small creature - only a tentacled skull visible - encased in a large mobile life support unit. This unit had a powerful disintegrator weapon built into it, and it felt no compunction in destroying its host's fixtures and fitting demonstrating its capabilities. Arcturus appeared to favour the admittance of Peladon, and sided with the Ice Warriors against the vacillating Alpha Centauri on a number of occasions. This was significant, as Mars and Arcturus had once been old enemies.
High Priest Hepesh was busy trying to sabotage the process behind the scenes, in order to protect the planet's ancient customs and superstitions. Blame was being put upon the Ice Warriors for these acts, and this included an attack on Arcturus. Part of its life support unit was stolen, later found by Jo Grant in the Martians' quarters, but the Doctor was able to make repairs. The Doctor knew that this sabotage had never been life-threatening.

Hepesh tried to engineer the Doctor's death in mortal combat with the King's Champion - Grun. When it looked like this scheme had failed, Arcturus attempted to shoot the Doctor. It was destroyed by the Ice Warrior sub-delegate Ssorg.
It transpired that Hepesh had entered into a secret deal with Arcturus. The planet would fail to join the Federation and Arcturus would gain a lucrative exclusive trade deal in return for protecting Hepesh's cherished old ways.

Grumbar was best known as a Dalek operator, though he also operated a Mechonoid in TheChase, a Gellguard in The Three Doctors, and appeared as one of the Functionaries in Carnival of Monsters. He was sometimes credited as Peter Murphy. He died in 1991.

Commander of an army bomb disposal unit, called in to investigate strange metal objects discovered in an old warehouse in Shad Thames, just south of Tower Bridge in London. He found the Fifth Doctor and his companion Tegan snooping around the building. The Doctor informed him that the objects were containers of some kind, which were of extraterrestrial origin. It transpired that they contained a gas developed by the Movellans which could attack Dalek systems and destroy them. The Daleks had a time tunnel located in an upper floor of the warehouse. This was all an elaborate trap to capture the Doctor so that he could be replicated - his double programmed to assassinate the High Council of Time Lords. Archer and his men were killed and replicated themselves, assigned by the Supreme Dalek to guard the canisters. The fake Archer gave himself away as the replicant had his gun, which the real Colonel had earlier given away. They were exterminated by Daleks made loyal to Davros.

An amphibious species from the planet Arcateen V. One of the race we encountered was a benign Star Poet who had been helped by Sarah Jane Smith. She had assisted the being in returning home, and by way of thanks it gave her the means to later defeat the Bane Mother. It was witnessing Sarah and the Arcateenian together one night which set Maria Jackson on her course to become one of Sarah's companions.

The species were not all so friendly, however. One of the creatures was being transported as a prisoner when it and its captor arrived in Wales in the early part of the 19th Century. The Arcateenian criminal killed its guard and was then able to hide itself within a young woman named Mary, giving her an extended lifespan. This involved devouring human hearts. When the body of one of her victims was found in a field just outside Cardiff, along with the transporter unit, Mary had to infiltrate Torchwood to get the device back. Mary befriended the lonely Toshiko Sato, giving her a pendant that was an alien artefact - enabling her to read other people's thoughts. The two women embarked upon a sexual relationship. Captain Jack Harkness realised that something was wrong with Tosh. When Mary broke into the Hub and threatened to kill Tosh, Jack gave her the transport device back - but he had programmed it to carry her into the heart of the Sun.
The Twelfth Doctor encountered an Arcateenian hearse, piloted by a Tivolian named Prentis. It was he who claimed the species were amphibians.

Played by: Daniela Denby-Ashe (Mary). Appearances: Torchwood 1.7Greeks Bearing Gifts (2006); SJA (Pilot): Invasion of the Bane (2007). The hearse features in Under the Lake / Before the Flood (2014).

Of course the appearance of Mary's true form in Torchwood is simply down to budget-saving - reusing a CGI character created for the earlier Sarah Jane Adventures pilot, which had only featured briefly.

Mary gives the reason why these two Arcateenians are so different in behaviour. She is simply a homicidal aberration, and the species is generally benign. The heart eating is down to her need to maintain the human shell she inhabits.

Monday, 26 September 2016

So, confirmation in the last few days that Class begins on October 22nd, on BBC 3. There will be two episodes shown that night, and Peter Capaldi has been confirmed as appearing in the first of them, to help get the ball rolling.
War is Coming, and the last time we had a character named Quill they turned out to be a right rum 'un.

In which the Doctor pursues an alien object that appears to be on a collision course with Earth. The object suddenly jumps a time track, and the Doctor must land as close to where and when it landed as he can. The TARDIS materialises in an alleyway at night. The Doctor decides to break into a building to ask if anyone has seen the object fall. He is shocked to learn that this is London, in the middle of the Blitz. Metal objects have been falling from the skies every night. Rose spots a small boy on a nearby rooftop. Going to his aid, she climbs up towards him. Seizing hold of a convenient rope, she discovers too late that it is attached to a barrage balloon which has come untethered. It drifts away with her dangling below - wearing a Union Jack T-shirt in the midst of a German air raid. She is spotted by an RAF captain, an American volunteer named Jack Harkness. He rescues her using a forcefield, as he has an invisible spaceship parked next to Big Ben. The Doctor meanwhile meets a girl named Nancy. He is shocked to hear the telephone in the TARDIS door ring, as it isn't connected to anything. He hears a child's voice asking for its mummy. Nancy warns him not to go near the child, then vanishes.

The Doctor manages to follow her, and sees her enter a house after its occupants have gone down into their air-raid shelter. She opens the door to a group of children, who will feast on the family's abandoned dinner. The Doctor sneaks in and joins them. They are all orphans, who Nancy looks after and feeds every night during the raids. A small boy wearing a gas mask comes to the door, and everyone is terrified of him. The children flee out the back door. Nancy tells the Doctor that if he wants to know about the boy, he should speak to Dr Constantine at the Albion Hospital. The Doctor goes there and meets the doctor. He looks after dozens of comatose patients, all wearing gas masks, and who have identical injuries. He explains that a small boy was brought in with the same injuries, and these spread to everyone else like a contagion. The gas masks are actually fused to the face. Constantine is also afflicted, and the Doctor witnesses him transform. Meanwhile, Jack has told Rose that he is really from the 51st Century, and is responsible for the alien object which they had detected. It is a Chula warship and he wants to sell it. They trace the Doctor and go to the hospital, where all the gas masked zombies awake and lumber towards them. At the same time, Nancy has been trapped in the house with the little boy.

As the people are all repeating what the little boy had said about seeking his mummy, the Doctor orders them to their room, as though they were naughty children. The gamble works. They go to the room where the boy had first been brought to try and learn more about him. The child turns up - as this is exactly where the Doctor had told him to go. They come under attack by the rest of the zombies. Jack manages to teleport to his ship, and brings the Doctor and Rose on board soon after. The Doctor notices that the ship is full of nonogenes, which can repair injuries. Jack's ship is also Chula technology. He is convinced that Jack is responsible for what if happening, but he insists that the object was simply a Chula ambulance. They go to where it crashed - railway sidings close to the hospital. Nancy joins them. She reveals that the boy is her little brother, Jamie, and he was the victim of a bomb blast one night when he went out looking for her. The Doctor deduces that there is more to it than this. Jack's ambulance was full of nanogenes. They found the boy and brought him back to life, as they are programmed to fix soldiers and return them to the front line. Not knowing anything about human physiology, they made a mistake. They are now fixing all the humans they encounter, using the boy as their template. Nancy isn't Jamie's sister but his mother. The Doctor hopes that the nonogenes will recognise this. They restore everyone, including Jamie. Jack had been operating a con - knowing that once he had sold the ambulance it would be destroyed by a German bomb that is due to fall in a few minutes. He uses his spaceship to capture the bomb and flies into space with it. He cannot defuse it or offload it, and so prepares to face death. However, the TARDIS materialises on board and he is able to get off his ship before it is destroyed.

This two part adventure was written by Steven Moffat, and was first broadcast on 21st and 28th of May, 2005. It sees the first appearance of Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman. Moffat will, of course, go on to write one story per season for the duration of Russell T Davies' tenure as show-runner, before taking on that role himself. He is due to handover to Chris Chibnall after Series 10.
Unlike many others of the first series writers, Moffat had not been a New Adventures writer, though he had contributed short stories to anthology collections. Davies knew him from a number of successful TV shows he had written (e.g. Press Gang and Coupling), and he was known to be a massive fan of the series.
The original series had tended to shy away from World War II. It only becomes a setting in the final season. Earlier writers had tried to pitch stories set at this time, with no success - Brian Hayles, creator of the Ice Warriors, had a story proposal called "Dr Who and the Nazis" back in the 1960's, and Douglas Camfield had also tried to get a WW2 script commissioned by Philip Hinchcliffe.
With a creepy child in a gas mask, Moffat could do nothing but place his story during the London Blitz, which lasted from September 1940 through to May 1941.

Moffat was given the task of introducing a new regular character - Captain Jack. He is an ex-Time Agent, from the 51st Century, now working as a con-man. Davies knew that the season was going to end with a major battle, and so needed a soldier - to do what the Doctor could never do.
He has an American accent, and cracks bad jokes. He is also omnisexual, and talks a lot about sex. When Davies had first been announced as show-runner, certain sections of the press worried that the show might have a "gay agenda", but it is Moffat who gives us the campest character of the new series. When we first meet him, he is flirting with a British officer, and he uses this relationship to infiltrate the railway yard where the ambulance has crashed. He also makes it clear that he bedded both his male and female captors in an unseen adventure. Moffat goes further, with the revelation that it is Mr Lloyd, rather than his missus, who has been providing sexual favours to the local butcher to get their enhanced rations.
The title of the second episode puzzled everyone at the time it was announced, but we now know that "dancing" is a euphemism for sex - especially in Moffat scripts.

For a two-parter, there is actually just a relatively small cast. Main guest artist is Richard Wilson playing Constantine. He's best know for playing the curmudgeonly Victor Meldrew in One Foot InThe Grave. Nancy is played by Florence Hoath - a superb performance. She often played younger than her real age.Story Arc:

Albion Hospital features. This was the hospital seen in Aliens of London.

The bomb which Captain Jack diverts has "Bad Wolf" written on its side in (very bad) German.

The cliffhanger is the Doctor, Rose and Jack surrounded by gas mask zombies, whilst Nancy is trapped in the Lloyd's house with the Empty Child. The resolution is the Doctor ordering the zombies - and hence Jamie - to their room. The Doctor is relieved that his gamble worked, as "Go to your room!" would have been terrible last words.

Overall, a splendid two episodes. Great CGI, great performances and a lovely comedic streak running through what could have been an extremely dark story. Voted 7th of 241 in the DWM 50th Anniversary poll, and deservedly so.
Things you might like to know:

The sequence with Nancy and the children with the typewriter was a late addition as the second episode was under-running. Of course it makes no sense that Jamie should be able to type remotely, as it was clearly stated he could only hack anything with a speaker. Moffat wrote the scene whilst on holiday with his wife. She had no love for the show at the time, and so he had to pretend that he was working on something else.

The station next to Albion Hospital is named Limehouse Green. There is no such station - it being a composite name derived from Limehouse and Stepney Green in East London.

"Everybody Lives!" exclaims the Doctor. Yes, it's one of those rare stories in which no-one dies. There are a handful in the original series (e.g. Fury From The Deep).

Prior to production on the series commencing, a number of the writers got together in West London for an Indian meal, to celebrate their commissioning. Present were Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Rob Shearman and Paul Cornell. The restaurant was called the Chula.

Star Trek gets referenced - Rose looking for a bit of "Spock" in terms of fancy technology - implying that it is a fictional series in the Doctor Who universe. A couple of years ago there was that comic book crossover with Star Trek, in which the Cybermen teamed up with the Borg, and the Eleventh Doctor joined forces with the crew of the Enterprise-C. The story Closing Time also indicates that Trek is a known fictional TV sci-fi show, Russell T Davies longed to have a crossover with ST: TNG, if only to see the Doctor puncture Starfleet pomposity.

"Are you my mummy?" - this story's catchphrase - will be repeated by two later Doctors. After donning a gas mask, the Tenth Doctor says it to UNIT's Colonel Mace in The Poison Sky, and the Twelfth will ask it of the Mummy on the Orient Express.

The exact date of this story is never specified, but we will later learn in Torchwood that Captain Jack disappeared in January 1941.

Time Agents operating in (or from) the year 5000 AD were first mentioned by Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Bananas. Moffat has a thing about bananas. Bananas and "squareness" guns. See The Girl inthe Fireplace and the Silence in the Library two-parter. The Doctor "dances" in the former as well.

A quick look at Google Translate has "Bad" come out as Schlecht in German. On the bomb is "Schlechter Wolf". Is it supposed to mean it's a Badder, or More Bad Wolf?

Jack talks about "Volcano Day" - referring to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, This would have had more significance had RTD's original outline for the series been followed, as the next story would have seen the TARDIS crew arrive in Pompeii on the eve of its destruction.

The episode title The Doctor Dances is unusual for a couple of reasons. Historically, story titles tended to be of the Noun of the Noun variety, though verbs do feature in individual episode titles in the Hartnell era. Those early episodes also mention the Doctor in their titles - usually absent from overall story titles, but this will become common as the new series progresses - to the point that we get a run of Something of the Doctor stories.

The bomb-site at the railway yard was filmed at Barry Island, just a few hundred yards from where the Holiday Camp in Delta and the Bannermen had been filmed.

The show plays fast and loose with the concept of the Blackout. Jack is framed wonderfully in an open window, of a brightly lit room, when we first see him - despite that fact that an air-raid is in full swing. Limehouse Green is also lit up like a Christmas tree. No wonder the Badder Wolf bomb finds it. The production team had set up a huge floodlight to shine on the area. This kept all the locals awake with its brilliance, and producer Phil Collinson claimed that he could see it from several miles away as he drove towards the location. The floodlight was scrapped, and a number of ground level lights put in its place.

Apparently Jack, as an American, would never have been able to be a captain in the RAF in the early part of 1941. The first squadron of US volunteers wasn't created until August of that year. Any Americans who had managed to enlist before - some coming via the Royal Canadian Air Force - would not have attained a captain rank.

Tuesday, 20 September 2016

Three figurines to add to the collection this month. The two regular releases are the fly-headed Tritovore from Planet of the Dead, and the Cyberman from The Wheel In Space.
The special release is the latest of the subscriber-only Daleks.
The Tritovore is a fairly bland figure. He's posed rather awkwardly, like he is suffering from a dislocated hip. The Cyberman represents the show's second major redesign for the men from Mondas. The accompanying magazine for this one shows how the original design was supposed to have looked - a grey plastic body with only minimal cybernetic enhancements.
The Dalek is clearly one of the multi-coloured movie ones, but it is presented here as belonging to The Chase. That's because a couple of static movie Dalek props, with their bases removed, were used in the background for a couple of scenes to swell their ranks. As this figurine doesn't have its base off, I am not sure why they didn't just present it as a movie Dalek and be done with.
Can't wait for a release of the Special Stealth Dalek from the same story - the one disguised as camera 5, seen lurking amidst the jungles of Mechanus.
Next scheduled release will be a Vervoid from The Trial of a Time Lord (Parts 9 - 12).

Sunday, 11 September 2016

The Keeper of the Conscience of Marinus. This ancient machine was kept in a pyramid on an island, surrounded by a sea of acid. It generated pacifying waves that stopped the population from committing criminal activity. Worried that it might be misused, Arbitan had four of its vital keys hidden in locations around the planet. His fears proved justified, as a man named Yartek found a way to overcome its influence. His followers, the Voord, wanted to take over the machine to enslave all of Marinus to their will. Arbitan worked out how to make the Conscience effective once more, and so sent his friends off to find the keys in order to reset it. None returned - even his daughter Sabetha and her friend Altos. When the Doctor and his companions arrived on the island, Arbitan forced them to go in search of the keys - placing a force-field around the TARDIS to coerce them into complying.
Shortly after they had departed, using wristband travel dials, the Voord infiltrated the pyramid and murdered Arbitan.
When the travellers finally returned with the keys, Yartek pretended to be Arbitan - claiming he had been disfigured by a discharge from the machine. His scheme was seen through, and the use of a fake key killed him as well as destroying the Conscience. The Doctor told Sabetha that the people of Marinus should not need a machine to tell them the difference between right and wrong.

Played by George Couloris. Appearances: The Keys of Marinus (1964).

It's quite a coup for the early days of Doctor Who - getting an actor who had appeared in that movie classic Citizen Kane.

The dialogue is confusing about how old Arbitan is. He talks as if he built the Conscience, but it is supposed to have been running for centuries.

And if Yartek and his Voords are the only people to have overcome the effects of the machine, why do the Doctor and his companions encounter so much villainy everywhere they go on the planet?

Arak formed a double act with his wife Etta, as they commented on the activities of the Sixth Doctor and Peri in the Punishment Dome on the planet Varos. Arak worked in the Zeiton mines, and like the rest of the population settled down to watch a diet of torture and death on the view screens at the end of a long shift. His was not a happy marriage. When he cast Etta's vote for her she threatened to report him, and it looked as if he really believed she would. The Doctor and Peri joined forces with the rebel Jondar and together they managed to smash the political system on Varos. The Governor discontinued the broadcasts, and Arak and Etta were left wondering what to do now. With increased prices being paid for the Zeiton ore, no doubt Arak would have an easier time of it from now on. Whether or not he and Etta were any happier is another story.

Played by Stephen Yardley. Appearances: Vengeance on Varos (1985).

Uniquely, Arak and Etta are two major characters in a story who never once interact with the Doctor or his companion. They act as a Greek Chorus, commenting upon what they - and we - are seeing, in a story that is (at least partly) about the power of broadcast media.

One of the Earth colonists enslaved by the Giant Spiders on the planet Metebelis 3. Arak had attacked one of the human overseers who worked for the Spiders, after he had struck Arak's mother. Now a fugitive, his father believed that he could act as a focus for rebellion to overthrow the "Eight Legs". The Doctor arrived on the planet in pursuit of Sarah Jane Smith, who had been accidentally transported there. He had been struck down by the Spiders' energy weapons. Arak was able to retrieve a device which saved the Doctor. The Doctor gave Arak a means of defence against the Spiders - a special stone to be worn against the forehead. Unfortunately this failed to be effective, and Arak was taken over and used to recapture the Doctor. He was freed when the Doctor aided the Great One in her own destruction. Presumably, he would have taken command of the colonists after the defeat of the Spiders.

Played by Gareth Hunt. Appearances: Planet of the Spiders (1974).

Hunt is best known for his role as Mike Gambit, of The New Avengers, as well as a long-running series of coffee commercials. He first came to fame in the popular period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs.

Until UK Health Secretary Jeremy came along, his name was also used as a rather rude Cockney rhyming slang insult.

A young Atlantean woman who befriended the Second Doctor and his companions. She helped get a message to Professor Zaroff, which saved them from being sacrificed to hungry sharks. She later allied herself with them against the scientist, once it was clear that he intended to destroy her city.

Friday, 9 September 2016

If you were reading this blog a year ago, you'll know that I deactivated general comments due to occasional spamming. I'm sure the ladies of Kiev are very nice, and escorting is as innocent as it sounds (ahem) but I didn't want them advertising their services here, thank you very much.
I was under the impression that I had set the blog so that Followers could still comment, but a friend has just pointed out a problem. To become a Follower you have to become a Member, and I can't find anything about that in the settings. I have therefore opened up the comments function to anyone again.
Escorts of Kiev - please don't bother...

Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Excellent news that an animated version of lost classic Power of the Daleks is going to be released in November. It will include the few surviving clips from the serial. You will be able to download it from BBC Shop from November 5th, with the DVD due out two weeks later.
The images we have seen so far appear to be sympathetic to the telesnaps.
I've owned three different versions of these telesnaps over the years. First of all, there was a "photo-novel" of Power of the Daleks published by the fanzine DWB many years ago. (I also have The Moonbase one).
Then DWM and its sister publication Classic Comics released all the telesnaps - although printed on poor quality paper. Then a couple of years ago DWM released all the existing telesnaps in a series of Special Editions, in much better quality.
Unfortunately, these telesnaps contain a number of inaccuracies, mainly dialogue - noticeable when you read them along with the audio soundtracks.

Naturally, this release has prompted all sorts of speculation about further lost stories to be given the full animation treatment. Some of these do not have telesnaps for reference, so are unlikely to appear any time soon. For others we do have full visual reference. As Dalek stories are likely to sell quite well, Evil of the Daleks as a follow up seems more than likely - depending on how well Power sells.

Monday, 5 September 2016

Well, it's been 8 months since I last posted something about anything remotely new Who. The latest Doctor Who spin-off series, set in Coal Hill School, Class has just finished filming in the last week. We still know very little about it, save that it is about a bunch of teenagers, and it does have to have some links to the parent series other than the school they attend. Just what will those links be? A cameo from the Doctor or Clara perhaps to get it launched? Aliens or other characters from Doctor Who to guest? If it is just the name of the school, I'll be terribly disappointed.
Personally, I'd like to see the school's Chairman of the Board of Governors make an appearance. That's right - a certain Ian Chesterton. I've never understood why Moffat never gave William Russell a cameo when he'd based Clara at the school for the last two series.

Class should be launching later this year, on BBC 3, which is now on-line only - but a number of BBC 3 shows have been getting screenings straight away on other BBC channels. Each episode of the most recent series of Cuckoo was shown on BBC 2 within a week of its BBC 3 debut, for instance.

Talking of spin-offs, time to bring back Torchwood I say. Barrowman's desperate to do it, and let's not forget who is about to take over showrunner duties on Doctor Who - just the guy who produced those early TW episodes.

Sunday, 4 September 2016

In which Rose tells the Doctor the stories she had been told as a child about her dead father - Pete Tyler. Jackie would present him as the greatest husband and father. He had died on 7th November, 1987, victim of a hit and run driver. Rose asks the Doctor to take her back so that she can see him, and he takes her to her parents' wedding. This isn't enough for Rose, however. her father had died alone in the middle of the road, and she wants to be with him at the end - to comfort him as he dies. The Doctor reluctantly agrees, and they go to the street where the accident happened. It is the day of the wedding of Jackie and Pete's friends Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark. Pete has been to buy a gift - a rather ugly vase. When the time comes, Rose finds herself frozen to the spot and cannot run to him. She asks if they can go again. The Doctor and Rose must hide from their earlier selves and wait until they leave before she can go to Pete. However, Rose suddenly decides to save her dad, and runs out into the road in time to push him out of the way of the car - witnessed by the earlier Doctor and Rose, who vanish.

A grateful Pete invites them to his flat, where Rose tells him she also knows the couple about to be married and will be coming to the wedding. The Doctor is furious. Who knows what damage Rose has done to time. He suspects that she only joined him in the TARDIS so that she could prevent her father's death. He storms off back to the ship, and is horrified to find that it is merely an empty Police Box shell. Nearby, invisible creatures are hovering about the area, snatching people out of time. Young Mickey Smith's mother is one of their victims. The Doctor rushes to the church and arrives just in time to save Rose when one of the creatures materialises above her - a huge reptilian creature. The Doctor urges everyone into the church, explaining that as an old building it will offer some protection from the creatures. They are Reapers, which repair damage to time. Time has become muddled up. Earlier Rose had heard music from her time on Pete's radio, and a mobile phone picks up Alexander Graham Bells' first telephone message. The Doctor discovers that he still has a connection to the TARDIS through its key. He can use this to bring his ship back.

Rose learns that her parent's marriage was not the idealised version Jackie used to tell her about. They argue constantly, and it appears that Pete is a serial womaniser. Jackie despairs of his continual get-rich-quick schemes. Pete learns that Rose is really his daughter, whilst Jackie thinks she is his latest lover. Baby Rose is in the church, and when Pete hands her to her future self the Reapers are able to break in. The link to the TARDIS is broken, and the Doctor gets swallowed up by a Reaper. Pete has seen the car which was supposed to have killed him repeatedly appearing and disappearing on the street outside the church. he works out that this is his fault - he was supposed to have died. he runs out as it next appears and throws himself in front of it. The Reapers vanish. The Doctor reappears and urges Rose to go to her dying father. The story Jackie tells Rose of her father now changes. He died outside the church instead of near their flat, and there was a young blonde haired woman who stayed with him until he died.

Father's Day was written by Paul Cornell, and was first broadcast on 14th May, 2005.
Cornell had been writing fan fiction for years, eventually editing his own fanzine. He went on to pen the very first of the New Adventures series of books. Later novels would introduce the character Professor Bernice Summerfield - a sort of proto-River Song who is still going strong in the BF audio range.
It has often been said that, for a programme about a time traveler, the classic series of Doctor Who rarely ever looked at the consequences of time travel. This is the starting point for Father's Day. Instead of some grand alien scheme, however, the story focuses on Rose and her own family. First she wants to meet her dead dad, then she wants to save him. In doing so, she unleashes the Reapers on the world. The entire planet is at risk - only really hinted at off screen, with mentions of smoke rising from the city. All Rose has done is save one, fairly insignificant man. As the Doctor says, however, there is a man walking around today that shouldn't be. Even the tiniest tampering with time can have the most dire consequences.

Which brings us to the Doctor's actions in this. Yes, Rose has done what anyone would do if they had access to a time machine. All very selfish but well-meaning. The Doctor, however, has been snacking on the stupid pills which he used to feed to the Brigadier. What on Earth is he playing at? It is one thing to take Rose to stand in the background of her parents' wedding, but he then agrees to take her to see her dad being killed. Twice. Even though the second time he and Rose are still present in their earlier versions - so scope for all manner of damage to time. And then he is surprised when Rose decides she would rather not see her father die in front of her eyes but will save him instead. He deserves to get eaten by a Reaper much earlier in the episode.

The story is very much a character piece, and a bit of a tear-jerker at that. The Reapers, entirely CGI creatures, have obviously been included just for the kids, as a monster-of-the-week. Camille Coduri gets to play a younger, brassier version of Jackie. Pete Tyler is Shaun Dingwall - a superb performance. He's just an ordinary bloke, who wants the best for his family, but has failings. Lots of them. For a dead man, he'll play quite a significant role in the next series.Story Arcs:

"Bad Wolf" is scrawled on some posters on the wall where the Doctor and Rose are waiting for the accident to take place.

As mentioned above, Pete Tyler will have a significant role to play later on.

The absence of the Time Lords due to the Time War is referenced, as the Doctor states that they could have sorted all this.

Overall, a very emotional tale, with some lovely performances. Nice to see a story that looks at the consequences of time tampering.

Things you might like to know:

The time tampering in this episode does not always make a lot of sense.

First up - why does the TARDIS appear to be just an empty box? It's by far the oldest thing in the area, yet we are told that the Reapers target the newest things first. Why take just the insides, and leave the box?

And, same as above, why take Mickey's mum and leave him, when he is younger than she is?

The church is clearly Victorian, so a lot of the houses in the area would be a lot older, and so would offer much better protection. In fact, as Southwark was heavily bombed during WWII, this church might even be a 1950's rebuild.

And why does the car start to appear at the church, instead of back where it is supposed to be?

This is the first Doctor Who story since Marco Polo to have narration by someone other than the Doctor.

The young version of Rose is played by Julie Joyce. She will later appear as one of Frobisher's daughters in Torchwood: Children of Earth.

The music from her time which Rose hears on Pete's radio is a song by The Streets. Mike Skinner of that band will have a cameo in Series 5 - the victim of River Song's hallucinogenic lip-stick at the beginning of Time of the Angels.

Whilst Doctors have encountered their earlier selves several times, only once before has a Doctor encountered an earlier version of his current incarnation - the Third Doctor in Day of theDaleks.

Rose coming into physical contact with herself creates a temporal paradox - just as when the two Brigadiers met in Mawdryn Undead. This is due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. Strangely, this term does not get mentioned here.

The initial story idea for this episode was to have been Pete dying over and over again, but seen from different characters' perspectives. The story would have been told to the Doctor by Jackie in the present day, so that Eccleston could have done minimal filming and had a break. His father was seriously ill at this time.

Another version would have seen slightly different Pete's, due to there being a new timeline created each time he died. Everyone would have taken refuge in a pub instead of a church, and its decor would have been pushed back in time after each onslaught from the Reapers.

The Reapers were originally envisaged as cowled figures, like vampiric monks.

Pete's get-rich-quick schemes were inspired by Paul Cornell's own father.

During production, the cast and crew who smoked used to use the hideous vase prop as an ashtray.

The actor who plays Stuart's dad Sonny - Frank Rozelaar-Green - provides some of the fancy footwork in The Doctor Dances, providing close-up shots of the Doctor's dancing feet.

About Me

A Doctor Who fan of long-standing, and not a little sitting / lying down. Originally from Scotland, since 1989 I have worked for a number of homeless charities in and around London. No wife, no kids - so generally have a quiet life. Love history, reading, theatre, cinema and BBC4. Never ITV2.